Archives for December 2009

Asanteni

December 29, 2009 by Kelvin 3 Comments

Hi there! Have you looked at the calendar lately? Yeah, we’re almost done with this year. Gosh, is it just me or did it go by really fast? Yet, a lot has happened this year…. we launched this blog. I bet some of you do not know what, exactly, led us to launch Like Chapaa. Well, here it is:

Tunalike Chapaa! It was a hot and dusty day on the streets of Nairobi. I had the day off work so I was just walking about in town, running some errands. In that particular month, I was really really ‘tight’ financially. You know what I mean? Yes, it was bad. While walking, my mind was just going round and round thinking about how to ease my financial woes. Then, while at ‘The’ jobless corner (you know, opposite the Nairobi Hilton?), I was just struck by this fact: I knew so much about the net, and I was even helping some people with their sites but I was not really using this knowledge to benefit myself. This just struck me and I kept thinking about it a long time. I was determined to do something. But what?

A few months later, Wambere was going through a rough patch of her own. She needed a substantial amount of money and when she told me, we realised that at the rate we were going, we would never get that kind of money. Ever. It just made me angry. I was tired of being broke. I was tired of depending on my salary and taking crap at work. I was tired of not being able to get what I want. Tired and angry.

Then we read a little bit of heaven from Naomi Dunford titled, “Why we’re broke and how to fix it.” That blog post just talked to me. It got me thinking that I do have the power to control my own destiny, I’ve had the power all along. See, everyone can be an entrepreneur. Everyone. You don’t need to be all serious with fancy offices and crisp blue suits – just do your thing your own way and at your own pace. That’s what we did – in the most quiet manner and at the unlikeliest time (when we were both busier with life, work and school than we could ever imagine), Wambere and I launched something we could call our own.

It was almost as easy going as a hobby at first – we didn’t have 5 year plans or anything of the sort. We just knew what we wanted to do and where we wanted to get to. We worked at it, little by little and day by day. Every time we did something and found out that it actually worked we were more surprised than anyone else. And here we are – it may not be the biggest or best blog but its ours. And we’re having fun, doing stuff that we are actually interested in and…we make money too.

If you ask me, I’d say that the three things about Like Chapaa that we are really proud of are: Biashara30, our own little SEO success and you. Yes, you. See, if it weren’t for people like you, we wouldn’t be here today. Thank you, dear readers for caring enough to read what we write. God bless you!

This is one of those end-of-year posts so surely it wouldn’t be complete without some sort of list. It’s tradition, you see. :p So here are the top articles of 2009 on this website as measure by the number of pageviews. In case you joined us later on in the year, help yourself to some of our earlier work:

So that’s a wrap, 2010 here we come! Have a wonderful new year, everybody. We’ll be going places – and you’re coming with us!

What do you want to do in 2010?

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: Year end

Small Business Ideas

December 28, 2009 by Kelvin 2 Comments

For most potential entrepreneurs, the hardest part in deciding to start a business is simply coming up with small business ideas. The ambition and drive are certainly there – the challenge, however, is finding and feeling confident about the right business concept.

Maybe a friend has succeeded in her own business. Perhaps small business ownership runs in your family. Or is it the fact that you’re just bored with the daily grind?

Why haven’t you pulled the trigger? What’s holding you back?

–MySmallBiz.com

Sadly, and perhaps surprisingly, many people wanting to start a small business just have no idea what to get into. They really want to get going and start something but they do not have a business idea. Could this be you?

Well, let 2010 be the year that you go forth and start doing something. The people at mysmallbiz.com have lots and lots of well thought out and explained ideas. Good luck. 🙂

Filed Under: Small Business Tagged With: advice

Stealth Mode?

December 24, 2009 by wham 2 Comments

Sometimes I get a lot of emails from people wishing to start a new business or website. One thing that I almost always get from these nice people is that they want me to assure them of absolute secrecy regarding their project. They are afraid that if other people hear about it, then their idea will be stolen.

But is that really true? The sad fact is that no one really cares about your idea anyway. And I speak this from experience – we’ve been involved in a whole lot of projects and the level of secrecy surrounding a project does not affect its success in the least. In fact, the more secrecy there is, the less your chances of success. I bet some of you never thought about it that way, ama? This is especially true if your project involves a lot of technology.

Why? Because high technology start-ups are very very much shaped by and demand a lot of user feedback. You cannot build a perfect project while tucked away in your basement – you need people to continually test it and give feedback so that your product ‘evolves’ into something that is just perfect for your target market. This is the plain truth, dear readers.

Please have a look at: Stealth Startups, Get Over Yourselves: Nobody Cares About Your Secrets by TechCrunch.

What do you think of all this?

Filed Under: Case Study, Cool Sites, Tips Hacking and Reviews Tagged With: advice, Start Up, Strategy

What Matters Now

December 21, 2009 by Kelvin Leave a Comment

Yet another year done and dusted. Did you achieve all your goals for the year 2009? Well, you’re running out of time – better get to work on the remaining goal(s).

But what matters now? The future, not the past. What Matters Now, the ebook, is the work of more than 60 people with big ideas and something to say. It will inspire you to make some changes in 2010, and to keep doing work that matters. Please download it and share it with your colleagues.

Here’s my favorite quote from the book, “Make the decision to be courageous. The world needs your story to be complete.”

Have yourself a blessed Christmas, dear reader. May 2010 be the year that you make a difference.

Filed Under: Miscellaneous

Kenyan Soccer

December 17, 2009 by Kelvin 3 Comments

Way back in February 2006, I was young (still am!) and idle. I had recently gotten out of High School and had little to do. So there was this weekend that I wanted to go watch a local football (aka soccer) game. What did I do? I immediately turned to Google to try find out what games would be on that weekend. Guess what? There was literally nothing on Kenyan football. There was no information on teams, players, fixtures….or anything else.

It was sad. See, I love football to death.

So I did what any idle young soul that loves football would have done 😛 I went forth and started Kenyan Soccer. Here’s a little something I had written back then:

To put it simply, this blog is about the beautiful game. The game of soccer, the only game to ever be described as a religion.

I recently tried to find the Kenya premier league fixtures and was shocked at just how difficult it was. I still have not found the league standings table.

Kenyans do love soccer, right? Then why don’t we love our own soccer? I already know what you’re going to say (corruption, mismanaged, low quality football), yeah I’ve heard it all before, and I’ve even said it. BUT, as fans don’t we have responsibility to love the game regardless of what happens? I mean, that’s what soccer is all about; you win, sometimes you lose, you even get relegated, anything can happen in football but the passion of soccer fans lives on, it must. So that when your team gets out of the doldrums, success is that much sweeter because ma-fans wanajua wametoka mbali.

Soccer already has a passionate following in Kenya- you should only see the scramble for seats at pubs that offer DSTV on weekend afternoons, or even for Harambee Stars’ match tickets. But we need more passion.

That’s what this blog is about: the further development of Kenyan Soccer.

At it’s height, the blog was pretty successful – we once got a link from Wikipedia (which made me very proud!). It was also the first site dedicated to Kenyan football/soccer. 🙂

Sadly, one year later I stopped updating the blog. Why? I had started my university studies and a little business on the side – things were suddenly busy. Also, this site had emerged and was pretty encouraging back then. Apart from my site, Kenyafootball.com was the only other online source of information on Kenyan football and it was really good – professional writers and all, and connections too. It was hard to compete against them – I was just a kid with ideas and a laptop!

Almost three years later, nothing much has changed. Sure, kenyafootball.com has some amazing writers, good stories and provide lots of information but I still feel that the representation of our beautiful (the beautiful) game online is largely lacking. 🙁

I feel that we need much more than what kenyafootball.com offers. We need more community and more access to information. We need need to make Kenya football online to be more fan-centric – basically, I would like to see sites so good that they make fans want to go and watch the local league games.

Has anyone got any idea how we can achieve this?

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Tagged With: Football

Smart Ways To Make Money Online With Nil Investment

December 14, 2009 by wordseller 17 Comments

The fiber optic Internet is here with us, the Internet charges have dropped dramatically and the prices of computers too have plummeted to due to zero rating. With opportunities beckoning on our doors I don’t see why you should continue complaining that there are no jobs. With almost nil investment you can now make some money online. If you love freedom, that personal freedom to do what you love and enjoy, that comes with working without a fixed schedule or geographic location, then you are welcome to join the lucrative world of making money online with minimal investment. Even if you’re not looking to work full-time at home, the Internet offers a viable source of money which can help to supplement your regular income and improve your life style.

Today I will explore several ways in which you can make some money online. My ideas involve making real cash not points or credits or some funny rewards, they don’t require you to have your own Web domain or ask you money or have your own products or any hard-selling. Hapana. So let’s start.

Be an Online Freelancer
The easiest way to make some real bucks comes through online freelancing or contracted work. Take advantage of your skills and expertise .What do you love? Are you good in web design? Are you a good writer? Whatever your skill is put it to good use as an online freelancer. Perhaps the best place to start is getafreelancer or Elance or Guru or demand studios. No money is needed to subscribe and the registration is fairly simple. Take your time in each website and read the processes involved and make some bucks while you can. You gotta start somewhere.

Be an Affiliate
If this is the first time you are hearing this word then you have been sleeping. Affiliate marketing is one of the most lucrative ways to make passive income while you sleep and do the things you love .Young people all over the world have become millionaires and rich overnight without products of their own or any investment. Talk of Joel Comm., Russell Branson, Michael Sweeney, the king of the online marketing Rich Schfren and the John Reese-famed for making a million bucks online in 24 hours!

Anyway, affiliate marketing works like this: You sign up as an affiliate with a merchant and then promote a specific product or service and whenever a referred user makes a purchase based on your recommendations you earn some commission. If you’ve got an interest in weight loss as an example, you can make money promoting weight loss products. In terms of fashion wear, you can earn commissions by recommending friends to clothing websites with affiliate programs. Sounds fun?

The amount of money you make depends on what you are selling. Done correctly, affiliate marketing is one of the most powerful ways to make money from the web.

The best place to start is Clickbank which has over 200,000 affiliates and over 2 million affiliates’ products. Clickbank is one of the most popular affiliate networks 1)because it deals with digital or downloadable products and 2)because of its platform which makes it easier to select. Commisionjunction or cj as its commonly known is the largest network but deals with physical inventory.

Other popular affiliate networks include Amazon, Paydotcom.com similar to click bank and owned by PayPal, moreniche of which I am member (it’s so cool) and linkshare.com. There are thousands of affiliate networks and probably the best place to find the best affiliate programs is at www.associateprograms.com. Did I mention that www.africapoint.com (based in Kenya) has an affiliate program worth checking out?

Sell Your Stuff Online
Do you have pictures or do you have old stuff that you no longer need, do you love artworks or have some crafts? The Internet provides the best platform to sell your stuff. We all know eBay which provides an avenue to sell your used (new) products to people all over the world. In fact you don’t need to own any product to make money on eBay. (See drop shopping, below).

Those pictures you have may be worth some bucks. Check out citizen journalism websites like www.spymedia.com and www.citizenimage.com which will pay for your images. You can also try using www.shutterstock.com, the most established and lucrative micro-stock photography website.

Are you good in web design, content writing or graphics? , If you are, then you can sell your work at places like www.sitepoint.com or even Clickbank, warriorforum, or digitalpoint.com.

For craftworks, the best place to sell your works is www.etsy.com

Be a Dropper Shopper
This almost like affiliate marketing although it involves arbitrage (here you act as a broker).

It’s a method whereby you deal with offline retailers or exporters in other countries, or buy from one seller and sell to another.

Simply put let’s take the case of eBay. Using eBay’s pulse (sort of market research platform) you find that the most popular fashion item is skinny jeans. Next we research who are the sellers of skinny jeans – we assume our seller (the cheapest) is located in china. You contact the seller who gives you a deal of a certain % of sales (you can also get an affiliate code).Then you head straight back to eBay and find who is selling skinny jeans (in this case he is the buyer).

Armed with your information, you propose the deal to him that you can supply cheap quality skinny jeans and that you can handle shipping charges as a way to sweeten the deal. Deal done. Your supplier in china dropships (ships it directly to the eBay seller that you found) the product and remits your cut in good faith.

Otherwise with affiliate code you can simply open an eBay store and start selling skinny jeans. The seller (our guy in china) handles the shipping (drop ships-takes the product to the buyer’s doorsteps) and handles customer care issues.

Hope you get the idea .It is rather simple. Perhaps I should send you to salehoo, the world’s biggest drop shipping platform where there are thousands of cheap wholesalers located everywhere. Some of the prices offered by the drop shoppers seem outrageous but the commissions are quite handsome. Plus I find this idea of dropshipping so much applicable right here in Kenya. What do you think? Is this not what brokers do at wakulima market?

Some more hot money making ideas coming up in the next post. Keep reading.

To your success,
Kihato Mwangi

About me
I am simple young man who earns and spend most of my time online making some bucks and hunting for opportunities. I am also an entrepreneur (my firm handles life coaching, Internet marketing and how to be financially independent) and a small business consultant who is always eager to help Kenyans to be financially independent by making smart choices.

Filed Under: Make Money, Small Business Tagged With: Business Model, E-commerce, Ideas, Simple Business

How To Get Out Of Debt

December 11, 2009 by Kelvin 1 Comment

Q: My query was is there a way i can get back to my finacial freedom after i took a loan with Barclays bank and currently paying through the nose with the big interest.also this has lead me to bad credit and i am always in a debit account so getting a top up is impossible.please advise. thanks

As I see it, there is no set path to come out of debt, everyone’s case is different. They key is proper financial management. If one has good money managing habits, they can theoretically get out of debt with ease.

There are two paths here:

Income + Borrowing + Spending both = DEBT
Income + Saving + Investment = WEALTH

Unfortunately, many many people follow the fist path. It is not fair to blame them though – we are only human and our wants can sometimes take control of our emotions and end up in us making wrong financial/money decisions….

So how does one go about getting out of debt? Here’s one plan. Kindly note that it is not the only way and there may be better methods out there.

First, take a piece of paper and list down all your sources of income (things that put money in your pocket every month). Next, list all your expenses (things that take money out of your pocket), including what you need to pay every month to service your loan(s).

If the total income is higher than the expenses, that’s super! Otherwise, you are in the red and things will only get worse unless you take control now. But how? First, do not get any further into debt!

Next, You MUST reduce your expenses (or increase your income!) so that you can comfortably pay your bills every month without accumulating more debt. Try your best and cut down on everything that is not an absolute necessity – make sure that you only pay what you absolutely MUST pay. If you can move somewhere where the rent is cheaper, do so; if you can cut down on your monthly bills, do so; if you spend money on anything that you don’t need to survive, stop that. Cut down your expenses brutally.

Doing this will make you able to service your loan. If, after you reduce your expenses, you find that your income is now higher than your expenses, put the surplus into paying off your debt. In fact, pour any spare money into the repayment of the debt. Think of the debt as a drain on your money – if you pay it off, you will have money to spend on other things. Put all your disposable income into paying off the debt until it is gone. If you have a savings account with money – consider using it to pay off your debt. Think of it this way: why earn 1 – 5% interest on your savings account when you have a loan that you pay at 18%? Use your savings to reduce the debt.

If you have more than one debt/loan that you need to pay, then you need to list them down and compare them. Which has the highest interest rate? Pay that one off first. You can do this: pay the minimum amount on the other debts/loans while focusing the rest of your money on the one with higher interest. Once you finish it off, move to the next highest interest rate debt/loan. Keep doing this until you pay off all your debt.

And when it is gone, then follow path two – which leads to wealth.

Basically, do as much as possible to acquire Assets while avoiding Liabilities. We can define assets as things that put money into your pocket and Liabilities as things that take money out of your pocket. For example, unless your are a taxi driver, buying a car is, in effect, buying a liability . Imagine that – who ever goes out of her way to buy a liability?

Income + Saving + Investment = WEALTH

Photo courtesy of alancleaver_2000.

Filed Under: Make Money, Tips Hacking and Reviews Tagged With: advice, Help

Archives for December 2009

Asanteni

Small Business Ideas

Stealth Mode?

What Matters Now

Kenyan Soccer

Smart Ways To Make Money Online With Nil Investment

How To Get Out Of Debt

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